Jumping Frames

Throughout April and May, they are running seminars and screenings of the Jumping Frames competition films, and comissioned works. Check out their site for video previews of the works, and an essay The Possibilities of Dance Video by arts critic Shum Longtin, who talks about ideas of freedom as being a motivation for dancing, a particularly topical essay in light of Beijing’s recent hatchet-job on Hong Kong’s Basic Law.

Asking why dancers dance, Longtim says:

Freedom may be the most tempting answer. Dancers dance for freedom and their movements are freedom itself. However, while no one would deny the value of freedom today, its meaning has become somewhat vague or even boring…

Today, when people talk about freedom, they think of it as an essence of the subject and an attribute that defines mankind. Freedom becomes a kind of ideal. Although people lack all kinds of freedom in reality, they can always aspire to freedom and go after freedom.